Quantum Institute: Visitor Schedule

The Quantum Lunch is regularly held on Thursdays in the Theoretical Division Conference Room, TA-3, Building 123, Room 121.

The organizing committee includes Malcolm Boshier (P-21), Diego Dalvit (T-4), Michael Di Rosa (C-PCS), Sebastian Deffner (T-4 & CNLS), Changhyun Ryu (P-21) , Nikolai Sinitsyn (T-4), Rolando Somma (T-4), Christopher Ticknor (T-1), and Wojciech Zurek (T-4).

For more information, or to nominate a speaker, contact Sebastian Deffner.

To add your name to the Quantum Lunch email list, contact Ellie Vigil.

Thursday August 13, 2015
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Speaker: Ralph Chamberlin (Arizona State University)

Technical Host: Sebastian Deffner

TOPIC: Nanothermodynamics: A poor-man's approach to the crossover from classical to quantum behavior

Abstract
It is well-known that classical mechanics must be modified to accurately treat interatomic interactions; not so well-known is the fact that standard thermodynamics must also be changed on a similar length scale. The theory of small-system thermodynamics was originally developed by Terrell Hill to describe isolated nanoparticles and individual molecules, but we find that this "nanothermodynamics" also provides a basis for understanding nanometer-sized fluctuations inside bulk materials. One result is a nonlinear correction to Boltzmann's factor. The mechanism may be attributed to finite-size effects in the laws of thermodynamics: total energy is conserved by including Hill's subdivision potential, net entropy is maximized by coupling to the thermal bath, and/or similar states are treated using the statistics of indistinguishable particles. The nonlinear correction provides a common basis for several empirical formulas that have been used to characterize the dynamics of complex systems, including stretched-exponential relaxation, super-Arrhenius activation, non-classical critical scaling, and 1/f noise. I will emphasize how specific models based on nanothermodynamics yield these simple formulas, plus deviations from the formulas that match the measured behavior in many materials.